Search Result for "disturbance": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (7)

1. activity that is a malfunction, intrusion, or interruption;
- Example: "the term `distress' connotes some degree of perturbation and emotional upset"
- Example: "he looked around for the source of the disturbance"
- Example: "there was a disturbance of neural function"
[syn: perturbation, disturbance]

2. an unhappy and worried mental state;
- Example: "there was too much anger and disturbance"
- Example: "she didn't realize the upset she caused me"
[syn: disturbance, perturbation, upset]

3. a disorderly outburst or tumult;
- Example: "they were amazed by the furious disturbance they had caused"
[syn: disturbance, disruption, commotion, flutter, hurly burly, to-do, hoo-ha, hoo-hah, kerfuffle]

4. a noisy fight;
[syn: affray, disturbance, fray, ruffle]

5. the act of disturbing something or someone; setting something in motion;

6. (psychiatry) a psychological disorder of thought or emotion; a more neutral term than mental illness;
[syn: mental disorder, mental disturbance, disturbance, psychological disorder, folie]

7. electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb communication;
[syn: noise, interference, disturbance]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Disturbance \Dis*turb"ance\, n. [OF. destorbance.] 1. An interruption of a state of peace or quiet; derangement of the regular course of things; disquiet; disorder; as, a disturbance of religious exercises; a disturbance of the galvanic current. [1913 Webster] 2. Confusion of the mind; agitation of the feelings; perplexity; uneasiness. [1913 Webster] Any man . . . in a state of disturbance and irritation. --Burke. [1913 Webster] 3. Violent agitation in the body politic; public commotion; tumult. [1913 Webster] The disturbance was made to support a general accusation against the province. --Bancroft. [1913 Webster] 4. (Law) The hindering or disquieting of a person in the lawful and peaceable enjoyment of his right; the interruption of a right; as, the disturbance of a franchise, of common, of ways, and the like. --Blackstone. Syn: Tumult; brawl; commotion; turmoil; uproar; hubbub; disorder; derangement; confusion; agitation; perturbation; annoyance. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

disturbance n 1: activity that is a malfunction, intrusion, or interruption; "the term `distress' connotes some degree of perturbation and emotional upset"; "he looked around for the source of the disturbance"; "there was a disturbance of neural function" [syn: perturbation, disturbance] 2: an unhappy and worried mental state; "there was too much anger and disturbance"; "she didn't realize the upset she caused me" [syn: disturbance, perturbation, upset] 3: a disorderly outburst or tumult; "they were amazed by the furious disturbance they had caused" [syn: disturbance, disruption, commotion, flutter, hurly burly, to-do, hoo-ha, hoo-hah, kerfuffle] 4: a noisy fight [syn: affray, disturbance, fray, ruffle] 5: the act of disturbing something or someone; setting something in motion 6: (psychiatry) a psychological disorder of thought or emotion; a more neutral term than mental illness [syn: mental disorder, mental disturbance, disturbance, psychological disorder, folie] 7: electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb communication [syn: noise, interference, disturbance]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

245 Moby Thesaurus words for "disturbance": abashment, ado, affray, agitation, all-overs, angst, anxiety, anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern, anxious seat, anxiousness, apprehension, apprehensiveness, baffle, bafflement, befuddlement, bewilderment, bluster, bobbery, boil, boiling, bother, botheration, brawl, broil, brouhaha, bustle, cacophony, cankerworm of care, care, chagrin, chaos, churn, cloud, commotion, concern, concernment, confoundment, confusion, conturbation, convulsion, daze, derangement, dilemma, disarrangement, disarray, disarticulation, discombobulation, discomfiture, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness, disconcertion, disconcertment, discountenance, disharmony, dishevelment, disintegration, disjunction, dislocation, disorder, disorderliness, disorganization, disorientation, disproportion, disquiet, disquietude, disruption, distress, donnybrook, donnybrook fair, dread, dustup, ebullience, ebullition, eddy, effervescence, embarrassment, embroilment, enigma, entropy, excitement, fanaticism, fear, feery-fary, ferment, fermentation, fever, feverishness, fidgets, fix, flap, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, flutteration, fog, foment, fomentation, foofaraw, foreboding, forebodingness, fracas, fray, free-for-all, frenzy, fuddle, fuddlement, fume, furor, furore, fury, fuss, haphazardness, hassle, haze, helter-skelter, hubbub, hullabaloo, hurly-burly, hurry, hurry-scurry, incoherence, indiscriminateness, inharmonious harmony, inquietude, insanity, interference, interruption, intrusion, irregularity, jam, jitters, jumble, jumpiness, maelstrom, malaise, maze, melee, mess, misarrangement, misgiving, mist, moil, mortification, most admired disorder, muddle, muddlement, mystery, nerviness, nervosity, nervous strain, nervous tension, nervousness, nonplus, nonsymmetry, nonuniformity, outburst, overanxiety, pandemonium, passion, pell-mell, perplexity, perturbation, pickle, pins and needles, plight, pother, predicament, problem, promiscuity, promiscuousness, pucker, puzzle, puzzlement, quandary, racket, rage, rampage, randomness, restlessness, riddle, riot, roil, rough-and-tumble, roughhouse, rout, row, ruckus, ruction, ruffle, rumpus, scramble, scrape, seethe, seething, shindy, shuffle, shuffling, solicitude, stew, stir, storminess, strain, suspense, sweat, swirl, swirling, swivet, tempestuousness, tension, tizzy, to-do, trepidation, trepidity, trouble, tumult, tumultuation, tumultuousness, turbidity, turbulence, turmoil, twitter, unassuredness, unease, uneasiness, unquietness, unrest, unsettlement, unsymmetry, ununiformity, upheaval, uproar, upset, vexation, violence, vortex, whirl, wildness, yeastiness, zeal, zealousness
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DISTURBANCE, torts. A wrong done to an incorporeal hereditament, by hindering or disquieting the owner in the enjoyment of it. Finch. L. 187; 3 Bl. Com. 235; 1 Swift's Dig. 522; Com. Dig. Action upon the case for a disturbance, Pleader, 3 I 6; 1 Serg. & Rawle, 298.